THE WIZARD OF ODD - Content

THE WIZARD OF ODD

For Hicksflicks.com, Friday, May 22, 2015

This week’s new releases include a futuristic imaginary world, ghosts in the suburbs, and lions and tigers and cheetahs, oh my.

“Tomorrowland” (PG). The title world in this Disney fantasy directed by Brad Bird (“The Iron Giant,” “The Incredibles”) is not the Disneyland namesake but rather a magical Oz-like world of the future, and this film has two earthbound narrators who are magically transported there, one a curmudgeonly scientist (George Clooney) who had the privilege some 50 years earlier and the other a contemporary teenage girl (Britt Robertson).

“Poltergeist” (PG-13). They’re here … again! Remake of Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper’s 1981 classic horror film —unique at the time for putting a haunted house in the middle of suburbia — stars Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt.

“Roar” (PG). Controversial 1981 film produced by Tippi Hedren and Noel Marshall (her husband at the time), who also star, along with their children (including young Melanie Griffith). Marshall also wrote and directed this tale of a family at a compound with some 110 big cats, many of which went wild during the shoot and caused no less than 70 injuries to cast and crew, many of which were caught on film and incorporated into the story. Exclusively at the Tower Theater.)

“Good Kill” (R). Ethan Hawke stars in this story of a drone pilot fighting the Taliban who begins to wonder if he is creating more terrorists than he is killing. Based in Las Vegas, he also seems to be at war with his wife and children. Co-stars include January Jones, Zoe Kravitz and Bruce Greenwood. (Exclusively at the Broadway Centre Cinemas.)

“Iris” (PG-13). Renowned documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles (“Gimme Shelter,” “Grey Gardens”) directed this profile of 93-year-old style maven Iris Apfel, a quick-witted and outsized presence on the New York scene for several decades. (Exclusively at the Broadway Centre Cinemas.)

“Lost River” (R). Vilified (it was booed at the Cannes Film Festival) vanity project for Ryan Gosling, who wrote, directed and co-produced this dark fantasy about a single mother (Christina Hendricks) in a depressed neighborhood trying to raise money to save her home. Meanwhile, her oldest son (Iain De Caestecker) and his girlfriend (Saorise Ronan) think they know how to reverse a curse on the town. This one is already on home video. (Exclusively at the Tower Theater.)